Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the current invention relate to plasma reactors and methods and systems that utilize plasma reactors.
Description of the Related Art
Plasma reactors may include at least two electrodes are spaced apart. Typically, a voltage difference is applied to the electrodes by a plasma voltage generator and an electric field is established between them. A stream of gas may be injected into the space between the electrodes such that it passes through the electric field. In this invention one or both of these electrodes may or may not be dielectrically isolated. Exposure to the electric field generally ionizes the gas and creates a plasma. The present invention may use a permeable or semi-permeable membrane which may be placed between the first and second electrodes. The first electrode and the membrane may be placed in a housing in a manner that allows gas or ionized gas to flow between the first electrode and the membrane and be in contact the membrane. The opposite side of the membrane may be exposed to a liquid. The gas or ionized gas may penetrate into and through the membrane and into the liquid. The second electrode may be placed on the other side of the membrane in a liquid such as water (or some other liquid) and in somewhat close proximity to the membrane, then the liquid may contact the membrane on the side away from the first electrode. Depending on the electrical characteristics of the liquid, it may act generally as a second electrode. The gas in the membrane may become ionized and form a plasma in, or around the membrane. If the membrane is permeable to the gas or ionized gas, the ionized gas may pass through the membrane and may come in contact with the liquid. This may allow the ionized gas to enter the liquid. In cases where the membrane is permeable to the gas, a portion of the gas may also enter the liquid in a non-ionized condition. In this manner, ionized gas may become associated with or injected into the liquid. Plasma injection into liquid may be utilized for applications such as: in-line liquid hydrocarbon fuel reforming for hydrogen enrichment to improve the fuel economy of internal combustion engines; nitrogen fixing by direct nitrogen ion injection into water; destruction of high molecular weight hydrocarbons (proteins and pharmaceuticals) in drinking water by injection of oxygen; ammonia/nitrate sequestering for treatment of high nitrate content water; demineralization (water softening) for consumer and industrial markets; disinfecting water; and other similar applications. In some previous reactors that utilize gas and liquid, a gas zone was created above the liquid and the plasma was created in this gas zone. This could be accomplished using a eductor or a laminar flow arrangement. This caused the area of the plasma generation to be limited to a relatively small area as the gas zone had to be well controlled. In addition, the liquid in previous designs had to be filtered to remove large particles and some contaminates. This new and novel design allows the liquid to be in direct contact with the membrane and therefore the liquid does not have to be (but can be if desired) flowing, nor do large particles have to be removed and the surface area for ion injection into the liquid can be increased while the design is simplified. In this invention the major limits to size may be the membrane size. In this manner the reactor in this patent can be part of a flowing liquid such as in a piping system, or simply added to a non-flowing water system such as a lake, swimming pool, or washing machine.